Chinese Ceremony

[GrahamR]

Hi

I went a local Chinese Temple in Thailand last night.

My wife wanted to dedicate some Feng Shui mirrors.

I don't really understand quite what happened, but it was apparently a mixture of Tao and Buddhist ceremony. Two men with a forked stick traced Chinese letters with a forked stick, another dictated them, a third who recorded them. These gave answers to people's questions.

From what I could gather, a representative of the 8 Immortals was interceding to give the answers: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eight_Immortals

They gave a blessing for new cars, motorbikes, statues for household shrines and Feng Shui items.

Does anyone know any more about this sort of ceremony?

With Metta

Graham

[Huifeng]

That's traditional Chinese folk religion, not Buddhist.
(Though the people who do it may be Buddhist, of course.)
Which is to be expected when one asks to bless fengshui mirrors,
motorbikes, or other such stuff.
Often called "spirit writing".

~~ Huifeng

[Seishin]

I don't know what it's like in Thailand, but in the Philippines whether it's Taoist or Buddhist a Chinese Temple is considered a Chinese Temple, and the local Filipinos can't really tell the difference. This proved difficult when trying to tell our taxi driver he'd taken us to the wrong temple! All he said was "But this was is Chinese too!" (we got there in the end!)

[GrahamR]

I don't know what it's like in Thailand, but in the Philippines whether it's Taoist or Buddhist a Chinese Temple is considered a Chinese Temple, and the local Filipinos can't really tell the difference. This proved difficult when trying to tell our taxi driver he'd taken us to the wrong temple! All he said was "But this was is Chinese too!" (we got there in the end!)

In Thailand Chinese Temples have Buddhist images and vice versa. Every one accepts the other religions, there is a mix of Hinduism and other religions too.

The is a distinct Chinese community, though many have intermarried. My wife is half Thai and Chinese. So we find separate Chinese temples with their own folk culture.

The Chinese temples are essentially Taoist I think ....

Graham

[plwk]

I would echo what Ven Huifeng said earlier... Fú Jī / planchette writing

Some familiar samples?



A slightly more 'extreme' one using a sedan chair....

[GrahamR]

That's traditional Chinese folk religion, not Buddhist.
(Though the people who do it may be Buddhist, of course.)
Which is to be expected when one asks to bless fengshui mirrors,
motorbikes, or other such stuff.
Often called "spirit writing".

~~ Huifeng

Thank you to everyone for the help

Graham